Tejen 

I write for a diversity-focused film review blog, so I’ll be honest: I really wanted to like Pretty Lethal. Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds, Amazon Prime’s new thriller seemed like it would be a girl power movie about dancers with a horror action twist. Sort of a Suspiria for teens. But with shallow and unlikeable characters, a confusing plot, an overreliance on violence, and cringey dialogue, any fun the movie started out with was quickly lost. What was left was a faint echo of greater horror movies about dancers made before. 

Desi’s “straight man” to Lucy’s playful exuberance subverted people’s expectations of what a Latino man could be and added respect and nuance to the way onscreen marriages between men and women were portrayed.

'Yes, God, Yes (2019)' is a coming-of-age tale about a Christian teenage girl discovering her sexuality, the turbulence that comes with it from within herself, and the judgment from those around her.

It’s fun, it’s energetic, but it’s also understated and vicarial. Zola is a modern black fairytale and future of black movies.

Kat Wahlen’s The Whiteboard tells, or rather shows, a delightful love story between two young women who meet in detention.